Legacy’s Voorhees attending national football summit

Legacy football coach Wayne Voorhees is representing Colorado at this week’s NFL-USA Football Summit in Canton, Ohio.

In its 11th year, the summit recognizes a coach from each state and the District of Columbia for their contributions to the sport.

Among those addressing the coaches will be former Pittsburgh Steeler Merril Hoge, now an analyst at ESPN, former Dallas Cowboy Darrin Smith, Hall of Fame cornerback Mike Haynes, former Green Bay Packer Dave Robinson, who played under Vince Lombardi, and former Kansas City Chief Todd Blackledge, who is a college football analyst for ESPN.

A wide variety of topics will be covered.

“I think the biggest thing is just looking at some of the issues of high school and youth football and trying to tackle some of those challenges,” Voorhees said. “Basically, just renew ourselves as far as the job we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

“It’s a good experience,” he added. “It’s been a pretty cool deal.”

Among the topics will be concussions, which will be addressed by Dr. Stan Herring, who heads the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee. Dr. Linn Goldberg of Oregon Health and Science University will also speak on steroids and supplements.

Voorhees said he’d attended a concussion symposium put on by the Jeffco Midget Football Association earlier this summer.

“I’ll probably get a little more information (at the summit),” he said, “but that’s a big deal, because that’s a new process in high school football and college football and professional football.”

Naturally, with dozens of coaches in the room, Xs and Os do creep into the conversation.

“There’s a little bit of that,” Voorhees said, “and I guess that’s one of those things that goes along with this, is the fact that you’ve got a bunch of coaches around that you can dialogue with afterwards.

“A lot of it’s been more small talk, just trying to get to know different guys from different areas of the country.”

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Neil Devlin, originally from the Philadelphia area, has covered high school sports in Colorado for more than 30 years, writing about the people, athletes and events that encompass the Rocky Mountain prep sports world.